


bird set free

by ineedmygirl



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Boys Kissing, Fluff, M/M, he finds tsukki along the way, kuroo is the drunk friend that always runs away, that's it that's the fic, third gym feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:46:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23315605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineedmygirl/pseuds/ineedmygirl
Summary: Kuroo is seriously considering skipping every party he ever gets invited to for the rest of his life in favor of getting drunk off cheap whiskey on a playground under the stars with Tsukishima Kei.or, three years later, Kuroo runs into Tsukishima - literally.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 58
Kudos: 544
Collections: Lovely Fics I gotta reread





	bird set free

**Author's Note:**

> ayooo it's me again, with more kurotsukki shenanigans!!
> 
> this idea literally just popped into my head in the shower 2 days ago as i was reminiscing on my time in college, being the drunk friend that always ran away. i sprinkled in a little kurotsukki, et voila!
> 
> i know the world is in total shambles right now, so i hope this is a good distraction for some of u! pls enjoy :)
> 
>   
> [moodboard](https://twitter.com/oiiblondie/status/1242897743720386561?s=20)  
> [my twitter](https://twitter.com/oiiblondie)

Kuroo is what his friends like to call a ‘runner’.

Everyone knows the type - either you are one, you have a friend who’s one, or you’ve seen one careening full speed down the college’s Main Street at three in the morning.

He doesn’t know exactly what it is that drives him to run away from all his friends and every party he ever goes to when he gets too drunk. It’s probably some kind of combination of the night air and the cheap beer and whiskey floating through his veins that makes him want to be free. To feel like he’s flying.

Tonight is no different.

It’s still pretty early in the night, but Kuroo’s just played four games of beer pong in a row and got his ass handed to him more times than he’d care to admit, so he’s already got a good buzz going on and a restlessness crawling up and down his legs like fire ants. He doesn’t know why or where, but he needs to _go._

“Yo, Tetsu!” He hears someone call after him from the back deck, but he’s already vaulted himself over the back fence. “Ah, shit. Someone tell Bo and Akaashi he got loose again.”

Kuroo grins dopily to himself, making sure to keep the bottle of whiskey he swiped tucked securely in his jacket. He’ll reimburse them for it tomorrow or something if they ask about it. (If he remembers.)

The neighborhood he runs through isn’t quiet, even though it’s nearing midnight by now. Some houses are residents of the area, old people and families who probably regret ever buying property so close to a college campus, because the majority of the houses lining the Main Street are alive with flashing lights, thumping music, and kids spilling out into the yard, and in some cases, on the roof. He waves to a few people that call out to him by name, not even bothering to look for specific faces in the crowds, just waving in their general directions.

He only stops when he spots a head of blonde hair that tugs at his subconscious and grinds his feet to a sharp stop.

There’s a group of three college kids walking the opposite way of him on the other side of the street. A guy in a beanie with his arm around a girl with pink hair, and someone almost a head taller than the other guy, wearing a flannel, wire-framed glasses, and a vaguely amused smirk. that Kuroo swears just walked out of a dream of his.

Or - A memory?

Holy shit. Kuroo - Kuroo knows that guy! He’s one of the Karasuno first years from his third year. Tall, snarky middle blocker. Pretty eyes. Endless legs. Sharp tongue. 

And that’s when he remembers a conversation he had with Sawamura a few months back.

_Looks like one of my guys is coming your way for school after he graduates._

“Tsukki!” His mouth instinctively forms the name. He can’t believe he ever forgot that conversation, but this is the first time he’s actually crossed paths with the former crow since the year started.

The blonde’s head swivels around curiously, looking for the source of his name. Kuroo waves his arms in the air like a maniac to make it easier for him.

“Tsukishima Kei! Hey!”

Tsukishima stops, his two friends turn back to him questioningly. He shakes his head bemused like he doesn’t have an answer to whatever they’re asking him.

 _Right, duh._ Tsukishima probably has no idea who he is from this far away. Or maybe Tsukishima doesn’t remember him at all? That shouldn’t sting as much as it does.

Kuroo looks both ways across the street before jogging over to the other side, not stopping until he was right under the lamplight and sure that Tsukishima could see him clearly. His amber eyes widen slowly in recognition, mouth popping open.

“Heya, Tsukki.” Kuroo grins. There’s something warm and nostalgic bubbling in his stomach along with all the beer.

“Uh…” Tsukishima’s lips are still parted slightly, eyes darting over every inch of Kuroo’s body like he’s a computer scanning him, trying to piece him together and make sense of him.

“It’s me, Kuroo.” He points to himself helpfully. “Kuroo Tetsurou? You might not remember me, huh? We played volleyball together in - “

“I remember you, Kuroo-san.” Tsukishima cuts him off. His eyes have finally stopped wandering and landed on Kuroo’s face with a funny expression.

“Oh, good. That’s good.” Kuroo feels oddly relieved that he’s not the only one who remembers. “Fancy finally running into each other like this, huh?”

Tsukishima’s eyebrows furrow. “You knew I went here?”

“Sure,” Kuroo waves a hand lazily and leans against the light post, crossing his ankles, like running into Tsukishima tonight was his plan all along. “Sawamura told me the day you committed.”

“Hm.” Tsukishima looks skeptical. But then, would he really be Tsukishima Kei if he _wasn’t_ skeptical of everything that came out of Kuroo’s mouth?

“So, where you party people headed?” Kuroo smiles winningly at Tsukishima’s friends. “Anywhere good?”

The pink-haired girl opens her mouth to respond, then thinks better of it and looks to Tsukishima questioningly. He sighs and answers instead.

“Some party at the Rugby Team house.”

“No kidding? That’s where I just came from!” Kuroo wonders if he even would have noticed Tsukishima in the midst of such a crowded party. Odds are he wouldn’t have. Good thing he ran into him - literally - out here instead. “Pretty good party, if I do say so myself.” _Even if he did lose every game of beer pong._

“Then why are you leaving it?” Tsukishima quirks an eyebrow. Ah, how Kuroo missed that challenging snark without even realizing he missed it.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He purrs.

Tsukishima’s shoulders stiffen. “Doesn’t really make a difference to me at all, actually,” he says, turning and starting to walk away.

For some reason, the thought of Tsukishima leaving now makes Kuroo panic, frantic, desperate, like he’s a man lost in the desert and his last few drops of water are slipping through his fingers.

Wow, who know that drunk-him was so much of a poet?

“Hey, wait, Tsukki!” Kuroo steps forward and grabs him by the wrist. He doesn’t pull hard, but Tsukishima’s entire body yields to his touch, stopping in his tracks. Maybe he didn’t really want to leave, either. “Listen, I don’t know how much you were looking forward to that Rugby party, but, okay maybe this is crazy, but would you wanna maybe skip it and come somewhere with me?”

He bites down hard on his bottom lip when he’s finished to keep any more stupid ramblings from slipping out. Tsukishima looks back at Kuroo over his shoulders, and the lamplight makes his long eyelashes cast shadows down his cheeks. He doesn’t respond for long enough that Kuroo thinks that maybe whatever words he just strung together didn’t actually make a coherent sentence at all.

Finally, Tsukishima asks, “Where are you going?”

“Haven’t decided yet, but it’s gonna be fun.” Kuroo promises, raising his eyebrows suggestively and opening his jacket to show off the bottle of whiskey he has stashed in there. Tsukishima looks down at it, eyes widening into something like disbelief and fond exasperation. Kuroo is very familiar with the look.

For a second, it doesn’t feel like three years have passed. It doesn’t feel like any time has passed at all, and they’re standing there in the third gymnasium, the Tokyo summer night air blowing through the doors they propped open and doing nothing to cool their sweat-sticky skin, and Kuroo and Bokuto have just pulled off some stupidly amazing trick shot that will never be of any use during a game but they tried it a dozen times and they finally _did_ it, and Tsukishima and Akaashi are sitting on the sidelines with their dripping water bottles pressed to their foreheads and their bare knees knocking against each other, and Tsukishima is giving him _that exact look,_ and -

“Hey, Kei?” The guy in the beanie jarringly brings Kuroo back to the present. “I think we’re gonna go on ahead to the party. Are you good here?”

Tsukishima looks hesitant, eyeing Kuroo like he’s the Devil himself, sent to trick him into following him to Hell, the same way he did when he and Bokuto first asked him to come block for them.

 _Come on, Tsukki, just trust me one more time,_ Kuroo thinks.

“Yeah.” Tsukishima says. “I’m good.”

Kuroo exhales.

“Alright man, just text us if you need anything!” Beanie Boy pats him on the back, and the pink-haired girl gives him a few pointed winks that make Tsukishima’s ears turn pink. Kuroo hums happily to himself, reveling in his victory, and waves goodbye to Tsukishima’s friends who wave back to him.

Kuroo gallantly offers Tsukishima his arm and the blonde scoffs and shoves him away, but still falls easily into step when Kuroo starts walking back in the direction he was heading before. The sidewalk is narrow, and they have to squeeze together when they pass a group of loud, giggly freshmen. Pressed up close, Tsukishima kinda smells like oranges and vanilla. Sweet.

“They seem nice.” Kuroo says once they’ve passed by the crowd of people. “I’m glad you have nice friends, Tsukki.”

“Hm. Yeah, they are pretty nice,” Tsukishima says with a barely-there smile, and Kuroo finds himself strangely grateful for those two random freshmen for making Tsukishima happy like that.

After glancing around to make sure there aren’t any cops out on foot patrol, Kuroo brandishes his stolen whiskey like it’s a trophy and takes a long swig straight from the bottle. His eyes screw shut at the cheap sting, licking the final drops off the corner of his lips, and when he opens them again, Tsukishima is watching him. Kuroo offers the bottle him, assuming that’s why he’s staring so intently.

However, Tsukishima looks at the offered drink warily. “I don’t know if I should. I already had a lot to drink at the pre-game.”

“Key word being ‘pre’.” Kuroo points out. “That’s was just the warm up, and this here is the real game, baby.”

“Fine, if it’ll make you stop defining prefixes to me I’ll drink the damn thing.” Tsukishima rolls his eyes, but takes the bottle from Kuroo. Their fingers brush and for somer reason, it makes Kuroo almost drop the entire thing. 

He must be drunker than he thought if he’s losing his basic motor functions like this. He’s careful to grab the bottle from the bottom when Tsukishima hands it back to him.

“So how did you meet them? I didn’t know crows ever separated from their flock.” Kuroo laughs at his own joke.

“Crows are actually very solitary animals, and a flock of them is called a ‘murder’.” There’s a smug little grin on Tsukishima’s face and Kuroo wants to - Wants to what? He doesn’t know, but he can feel his own dopey grin spreading unbidden across his face. Tsukishima frowns. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s very cute that you know all that, Tsukki.”

Tsukishima snatches the whiskey bottle out of Kuroo’s hand and looks pointedly away while he takes a long swig. The back of his neck is creeping with a pink flush and Kuroo wonders whether it’s from the alcohol or something else.

“Whatever.” He scrunches up his nose at the offensive taste. “The guy, Koji, is my roommate. His girlfriend Ren is applying to the same major as me, so we study together sometimes.”

“That is also very cute. It’s nice seeing you break old habits.” 

Kuroo is mostly teasing, but it is nice to see that Tsukishima is making friends and finding his place here. If he’s really looking now, Tsukishima seems to fit much better in his skin now than he ever did before. And maybe he feels just a little bit guilty about not going out of his way to find Tsukishima earlier in the year, to offer him any help or guidance or anything that he needed. That was kind of Kuroo’s job, after all.

“Speaking of,” Tsukishima arches an eyebrow at him. “You’re playing rugby now?” The way he says the word ‘rugby’ makes it sound like a curse word.

Kuroo barks out a laugh, waving his hands in front of him. “Oh, hell no, not me! Can you imagine squeezing hair that looks like this into a rugby helmet?” He pats at his gravity-defying locks. Tsukishima snickers. “Criminal. Bokuto joined the team for fun. He’s actually pretty good.”

“He’s not playing volleyball anymore?” Tsukishima sounds surprised and almost…sad? No, maybe disappointed was a better word.

“Are you kidding me? Of course he is. He’s on the volleyball, rugby, tennis, track & field, and disc golf teams.” Kuroo counts them off on his fingers. “Oh, and he plays something called Quidditch, which I think is from Harry Potter.”

(Kuroo knows very well where Quidditch is from, but for some reason he’s trying very hard to look cool in front of Tsukishima.)

Tsukishima’s eyes go wide as a full moon. “Jesus, how does he have time for all of that.”

“Ah, you know Bo. He’s practically superhuman.”

“He’s flunking his classes, isn’t he?” Tsukishima deadpans.

“Only one of them!” Kuroo defends his best bro. It’s just an elective, and anyways, Akaashi will help him pull his grade up by the end of the semester. He always does.

“I can’t even imagine being on that many teams.” Tsukishima shakes his head. All the drinks seem to be getting too him now, because he’s talking more than Kuroo remembers him ever doing. “Just one was more than enough for me in high school, and now I barely have any free time at all. I mean, I get to the gym a few times a week, but - “

“But it’s not the same as playing on a team,” Kuroo finishes. He knows the exact feeling, has been missing a big chunk of his identity ever since he left Nekoma. A lot of them have stayed in touch since he graduated, and he talks to Kenma nearly every day, but catching up over the phone every once in a while could never compare to the camaraderie and closeness that seeing each other every day, training and winning and failing together, gave them all.

“No. No it’s not.” Tsukishima agrees, a little sadly. Kuroo doesn’t recall him ever appearing to be very close with a lot of his teammates, but he’s sure that in his own Tsukki way, those guys were family to him, too.

Kuroo offers him the bottle again and he doesn’t hesitate to take it this time.

“Well, if you miss it so much, I’m sure Bokuto and the rest of the volleyball team would be _thrilled_ to have you.” Kuroo offers. “He’s always complaining to me about how much their defense sucks.”

“Then why don’t _you_ join the team?” Tsukishima implores, a little bit of genuine curiosity behind the question.

“Maybe I would, if you were on it,” Kuroo blurts.

The honesty of his words shock him the moment he processes them. He misses volleyball and being on a team plenty, but with all his organic bio and chemistry labs this year, he needed the all the downtime he had to relax. He already saw Bokuto all the time, so getting to play with his best friend wasn’t as much of an incentive as getting to play with Tsukishima would be. Getting to see how much better he’s gotten, how much he’s grown as a player, how his legs would look in the school uniform…

“Don’t hold your breath,” Tsukishima snorts delicately, and Kuroo mentally smacks himself for being a creep.

“I don’t know, Tsukki, I can hold my breath for a prettttty long time. You never know what’ll happen.”

Mostly teasing, again, but Kuroo can’t deny the grain of truth. The tiny, hopeless optimist that’s always lived inside of him, imagining himself and Bokuto and Tsukishima all playing volleyball together again, but on the same side of the net this time. Practicing late into the night together, long after everyone else has gone home, blocking together with Tsukishima during games, Akaashi cheering all three of them on from the stands.

Maybe. Maybe they could, but that’s more of a Tomorrow Kuroo thing to worry about.

They walk along for a few more blocks, trading the bottle back and forth between them, as the streetlights become more far and in between and the stars and the moon are lighting their way. It’s quieter as they leave the bustle of the Main Street behind them, and pretty sure the sounds of drunk college kids and house music fade away to buzzing cicadas and the sounds of their shoes on the pavement. 

That’s when Kuroo sees the silhouette of something down the road.

“Look,” he shouts a bit too suddenly, making Tsukishima jump in shock as he grabs him by the arm and points excitedly. “A park!”

Tsukishima squints into the distance, pushing his glasses up his nose. “That’s a playground,” he corrects. “As in, for children.”

“Well then, you’ll just have the dig down deep for that inner child of yours, Tsukki, because we are going!” Kuroo plants both hands squarely on Tsukishima’s lower back and pushes. Tsukishima doesn’t give in and make it easy on him, makes him work for it the whole way there, and Kuroo wouldn’t have it any other way.

*

He can’t remember the last time he had more fun than this.

Kuroo is seriously considering skipping every party he ever gets invited to for the rest of his life in favor of getting drunk off cheap whiskey on a playground under the stars with Tsukishima Kei.

It gives him that same floating, untethered feeling of being free that Kuroo gets when he’s drunk and running, feet barely touching the pavement and wind whipping through his hair. But instead of running, he’s swinging, and pushing Tsukishima down the slide, and crawling through tunnels that aren’t made for people with as much leg as him, and laughing so hard his stomach hurts when Tsukishima walks face first into the monkey bars and gets a red mark on his forehead because they’re just too goddamn short.

He’s short of breath and his heart is pounding like he just ran ten blocks, but it’s for an entirely different reason.

It’s because of Tsukishima.

It took him entirely too long to realize it, and he’s pretty sure if he didn’t have any alcohol in his system he would have noticed the moment he laid eyes on Tsukishima Kei for the first time in nearly three years. But goddamn, is he beautiful.

The kind of beautiful that steals all the air out of Kuroo’s lungs.

He was always cute, of course. Kuroo noticed it, and so did everyone else. Cute in that long, lean, gangly fifteen-year-old way that made Kuroo want to pinch his cheeks and take care of him.

Kuroo wants to take care of him in a _very_ different way now.

The more they keep playing around and drinking (the bottle is over halfway gone now), the more Tsukishima’s face gets flushed pink and the more he keeps laughing - _giggling_ \- like Kuroo is the funniest most ridiculous person in the entire world. Kuroo would happily put on a clown suit and dance like a fool if it made Tsukishima keep smiling and looking at him with bright, glassy eyes like that.

The moonlight makes Tsukishima’s hair glow like a pretty, blonde halo around his face and his eyes are two endless pools of honey that make Kuroo feel like he’s drowning in slow motion.

Kuroo wonders what demon he has to sell his soul to in order to make Tsukishima his.

Eventually, then run out of things to do on the playground on continue on their way to nowhere. Tsukishima trips over his own feet once or twice, so Kuroo grabs his hand in his.

Just to keep him from falling over, of course.

Tsukishima grumbles that he’s fine on his own, but doesn’t pull away.

“You have no idea where we’re going, do you?” Tsukishima asks seemingly out of the blue, looking up at the buildings around them.

Kuroo shrugs. He hasn’t had any idea where they were going this entire time. He's surprised it took Tsukishima this long to realize it.

“Why do you ask?”

“We’re nearly back to my dorm.” Tsukishima sounds sad - or disappointed - again.

“Wait, we’re on campus?” Kuroo stops, taking in his surroundings.

“Yes?” Tsukishima, who has been pulled to a stop with him, looks up at Kuroo curiously.

“Come with me, I have a brilliant idea!”

Tsukishima doesn’t really have much of a choice other than to follow him when Kuroo takes off with the blonde’s hand still held securely in his.

*

“Let’s have a race!” Kuroo spreads his arms wide, like he’s presenting Tsukishima with an all expenses paid getaway to the Bahamas, rather than the university’s track field.

Tsukishima follows Kuroo hesitantly onto the field, shielding his eyes and squinting up into the automatic stadium lights that go on every night. “Are we allowed to be here?” He asks nervously.

Kuroo looks around and holds his hands up innocently. “I don’t see anyone telling us we can’t be.”

Tsukishima glances around, and Kuroo belatedly wonders if he’s taking this too far for one night. For their first night seeing each other in _years._ It’s honestly a miracle he even got Tsukishima to stick around this long, drinking his terrible whiskey and letting him hold his hand. But a public park was one thing, the school’s private track was a whole different -

“Okay, fine.”

“Wha - Really?” Kuroo gapes. Tsukishima shrugs like it isn’t a big deal, but Kuroo can tell that for him, it is. Tsukishima is _trusting_ him. Warmth that has nothing to do with the alcohol in his system pools in the cage of his chest.

“But,” Tsukishima adds, holding up a finger. “You gotta take your shoes off, too, to be fair.”

Kuroo is confused for a second before he looks down at Tsukishima’s feet, finding them completely bare, toes curling on the pavement. He bursts into loud, cackling laughter, falling onto his ass and clutching his stomach. _Christ,_ he hasn’t had this much fun in so long.

“Tsukki!” He exclaims, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. “Where the hell did your shoes go?”

Tsukishima’s fighting a smile, looking down at him and his eyebrows furrow adorably. “I - I’m not sure?”

“You are one incredible specimen, Tsukishima Kei,” Kuroo laughs, pulling his sneakers off one by one.

“Boys don’t like to be called ‘specimens’, Kuroo-san,” Tsukishima informs him primly.

“Oh?” Kuroo cracks his back as he stands, smirking. “What _do_ boys like to be called?” He teases. He could name a few other things he’d like to call the blonde.

Tsukishima turns his face away, as Kuroo has realized he does any time he’s flustered and doesn’t want Kuroo to see. He wonders if Tsukishima knows that he blushes all the way to the back of his neck and that it doesn’t really hide anything at all.

When Tsukishima turns back, he doesn’t look very flustered any more at all. He looks like he and Kuroo are about to stare each other down from opposite sides of the volleyball net, like it’s Nationals all over again and he has no intentions of losing. There’s a fiery spark in his eyes.

 _Fuuuuuck,_ Kuroo is so done for.

“They like to be called ‘winner’ when they leave your ass in the dust.”

*

In the end, it isn’t even a close race at all.

Kuroo wouldn't say that he ‘throws’ the race, exactly. It’s just that he chooses to prioritize something else over winning.

They toe the starting line, shoulder to shoulder, and Kuroo counts them down, _’three, two, one, go!’,_ and he makes it one step before he’s already lost the entire thing. Because Tsukishima, with his impossibly long legs and lean build, is already two steps ahead of him, and Kuroo sees him streaking past out of his peripheral vision in a blur of yellow and plaid and he’s totally screwed.

He might have had a fair chance to win, if he really wanted to. He’s always had strong thighs, and even if Tsukishima had a height advantage on him, he could really kick it into gear for a long sprint. But the thing was, Kuroo didn’t want to run any faster, because he didn’t want to pull ahead of Tsukishima.

If he ran ahead of Tsukishima, he wouldn’t be able to see him anymore, and goddamn was Tsukishima a vision when he was running under the stadium lights; drunk, barefoot, wearing skinny jeans, looking back over his shoulder at Kuroo behind him and laughing like a child.

Kuroo still runs, he’s not sure he could stop his body if he tried. But he lingers back a few paces and just watches Tsukishima run - watches him _fly_ \- because it’s the most incredible sight he thinks he’s ever seen.

Tsukishima looks like the physical embodiment of how Kuroo feels in his chest, in his bones, in his lungs when he runs. Free. Tsukishima looks so free it makes Kuroo want to cry.

“Damn, Tsukki.” Kuroo collapses onto the grass next to the blonde when he finally finishes his lap around the track, a few moments later. “That was impressive!”

Tsukishima cracks one eye open, laying on his back with his chest heaving and sweat beading across his forehead. “Thanks. You’re not that fast.”

“Thank you.” Kuroo laughs and props himself up on his elbows so he can properly look down at the vision in front of him. Both of his eyes have fluttered shut again and his eyelashes are so long and pale they look like dandelion fluff gathered on his cheekbones. His lips are slightly parted, drawing in quick breaths, tongue darting out to wet his lips.

Kuroo shifts a little closer. Maneuvers his body so that his face is hovering just over Tsukishima’s. He’s sure the blonde can tell where his is now because he blocks out the stadium lights and casts a shadow over him now. They’re close enough that Tsukishima must be able to feel Kuroo’s breath on his lips, the same way Kuroo can feel his.

His eyelids twitch like he’s fighting to keep them shut, but he doesn’t move away. Doesn’t do anything but give a little hum in the back of his throat, which Kuroo interprets as a wordless question;

_”So, what are you gonna do now?”_

With more clarity that he’s had all night and his heart beating frantically in his throat, Kuroo kisses him.

Tsukishima kisses back immediately, lips parting to let Kuroo slot them together with ease, parting with a gentle sigh until Kuroo presses in and kisses him again, again and again, softer each time until they peter off into nothing more than the tips of their noses rubbing against each other. His lips are tingling, but so is every other extremity of his body. His mouth tastes like Tsukishima, but also like cheap alcohol, and something about that just feels so very wrong to him, even if the feeling of Tsukishima’s lips feels so _right._

But he’s drunk. They both are, and if Kuroo were anyone else in the world, he’d kick his own ass for taking advantage of Tsukishima like this.

He swallows hard, fighting every cell in his body to keep himself from kissing Tsukishima again, this time harder, this time until their both breathless and desperate.

“Sorry,” he whispers against Tsukishima’s lips. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

Tsukishima draws in a sharp breath, like he’s just been stabbed. He turns his face to the side, and Kuroo pulls away to give him space.

“Oh. Right.”

“What about tomorrow?” Kuroo follows up quickly.

“Huh?”

“Can I kiss you tomorrow?”

“Are you - are you being serious right now?” Tsukishima sounds guarded, vulnerable - the tiniest bit hopeful.

“Cross my heart, Tsukishima Kei, there is nothing I want more than to try kissing you for the first time again tomorrow when we’re both thinking more clearly.” Kuroo promises.

Tsukishima’s eyes flicker back over to him, searching and cautious.

“I think I can make room for you in my schedule,” he says slowly, a flicker of a smirk forming on his lips. Kuroo lets out a relived breath of laughter, chest swelling like a balloon, threatening to float him away.

“Perfect. I’ll have my people call your people.”

Tsukki snorts a delicate little laugh, covering his face with his hands. “That’s kind of ridiculous isn’t it? Making a date just for a kiss?”

“Oho, it’s a date now?” Kuroo puts a finger to his chin thoughtfully. “In that case, it’ll definitely be more than just a kiss. Prepare to be swept off your feet, Tsukki, because I’m going to take you on the best first date in the history of the world.”

Kuroo will take him to his favorite diner for breakfast - the sooner he can see Tsukishima, the better. He’ll take him on a long walk, or to a museum. Something low-key and quiet, Tsukishima would like that, and it’ll make it easier for them to talk. Kuroo wants to ask him about everything he’s missed these past few years, wants to know everything there is to know about Tsukishima. And maybe by then it’ll be time for lunch, and they can go to Kuroo’s favorite food truck for sandwiches, or maybe Tsukishima has a favorite place they could go to next. They could take turns choosing where to eat, and even get dessert or see a movie or -

A gentle press of soft, warm lips on his cheek brings every thought in Kuroo’s head to a grinding halt.

Tsukishima’s cheeks are flushed pink and he’s smiling up a Kuroo with such a sweet smile, his teeth ache with phantom cavities.

“Idiot. You just did.”

Kuroo’s heart runs away from him.

**Author's Note:**

> just something a lil short and sweet, i hope u guys liked it :')
> 
> i will be back verrrry soon with some other fics i got cookin up at the moment, but this was just something fun i wanted to bang out in the meantime
> 
> let me know what you thought, and as always, u can come find me on [twitter!](https://twitter.com/oiiblondie) ok love u guys mwah!


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